Ever wanted to build your own dream home complete with spiral staircase, an open concept kitchen and spacious living area, all to your specifications? Haven’t we all. Steven Boyd and Karen Bursey of Conception Bay, Newfoundland were in the process of doing just that when a stop-work order was issued on their home. The problem? Their house was being built too close to their neighbour’s property. It wasn’t as if the homes were rubbing eaves troughs though. They were too close by a mere 9 centimetres!
According to a recent article in the Financial Post, the new mortgage rules announced just last month do not apply to credit unions. While the new rules have done exactly what was expected – that is, to bring a correction to the overinflated housing market, some say that it has also provided credit unions an unfair advantage.
As provincially regulated financial institutions, credit unions are not under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the organization that governs Canada’s major financial institutions. The new rules, which were implemented to further restrict the flow of credit, and thereby reduce consumer spending, do not, therefore, apply to credit unions.
Volcano house is just two hours from Las Vegas, Nevada, in Newberry Springs, California, and it's a wonder of architectural design built by architect Harold J. Bissner Jr. Bissner is known for his unique style, post-and-beam and “pole houses,” has designed homes all across the world, from England to Shanghai.
The dome-shaped house sits on top of a 150-foot conical hill of volcanic fragments. It was built in 1968.
With its 12-year long boom, Toronto’s condo market is one of the biggest in the world, making the reality of home ownership – at least for families – an unrealizable dream. While there are some single-family homes available on the market, stock is shrinking, spurring fierce bidding wars. In some cases, homes in Toronto have sold for as much as $200,000 over asking. And it’s not going to get much better, according to some. In fact, in the next decade, experts project a price increase of 30-60% for single-detached homes. If you want to live in Toronto’s core, condos may be your only option.
Sky City One, which aims to be the world’s new tallest building, has recently received approval from a local government in China, but awaits final approval from China’s central government. Broad Sustainable Building, a Chinese construction company, has drawn up the plans for Sky City One, a 220-storey building that will beat out Dubai’s Burj Khalifa for the title of world’s tallest building by just 10 metres. The projected 838-metre building will be erected in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province, in just 90 days. That’s right – just 90 days!
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June 2012
